- Rs 500 cr Saubhagya Scheme scam
- *Frame SIT, conclude fresh probe within 2 months
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 13: Pointing out several lacunas in the investigation conducted into Rs 500 crore Saubhagya Scheme scam in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, Special Judge Anti-Corruption Jammu Tahir Khurshid Raina has rejected the closure report filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) with the direction for further investigation to be conducted through Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by SSP and concluded within a period of two months.
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The FIR for commission of offences under Prevention of Corruption Act, based on the Preliminary Enquiry into the allegations of double drawl and misappropriation of funds by the executing agency in the implementation of Saubhagya Scheme (electrification of un-electrified households), was lodged in the year 2020 against five officials of the Power Development Department and Project Monitoring Agency—M/s Rodic Consultant Private Limited, New Delhi.
The accused named in the FIR were Manhar Gupta, the then Chief Engineer Project Wing Jammu, Umesh Parihar, the then Superintending Engineer EM&RE Circle Doda, Asgar Hussain, the then Superintending Engineer Circle Doda, Tasaduq Hussain Sheikh (the then Executive Engineer EM&RE Division Doda and Surinder Kumar Koul, the then Advisor Rodic Consultant Private Limited New Delhi.
The ACB filed the closure report on the ground that in its estimation the allegations leveled against the officers remained unapproved. In the report, the Investigating Officer (IO) mentioned that if some violations had taken place, they were just low profile violations of the guidelines for which he finally recommended Departmental Action against the officers of the PDD.
After deeply analyzing the closure report, the Special Judge Anti-Corruption Jammu observed, “the execution of the Saubhagya Scheme prima-facie seems to have not been carried out as envisioned, desired and designed by the Government of India. All the mandatory SOPs, as envisaged in the scheme and in various circulars, issued from time to time by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, prima-facie seem to have been observed, by all the relevant authorities, more in breach than in compliance”.
“The executing agency (JKPDCL), the Project Monitoring Agency (PMA), and even the Government seem to be on same page so far as the shabby and illegal execution of Saubhagya Scheme on ground is concerned”, the court said, adding “Rodic and the PDD officers and officials, through their criminal conspiracy, fabricated false evidence by way of creating utility certificates and bills, endorsed by the Rodics without its requisite authentication as per the actual work executed on the ground at the relevant time as was mandatorily required”.
“These bills were uploaded and sustained on the PFMS portal, leading to the release of payments in favour of the beneficiaries. Such an illegal action could only have been orchestrated successfully if all these entities-Rodic, Executing Agency, and the Government were in collusion on account of some illegal considerations, which amounts to criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act”, the court said.
Rejecting the closure report, which has exonerated the concerned public servants, involved in the execution of Saubhagya Scheme in Jammu province, from any criminal liability and only recommended Departmental Action against them to the Government for committing some low profile violations of the guidelines, the Special Judge Anti-Corruption said, “Let this message go to such investigating agencies which want to treat the court as the dumping ground of their sham and motivated investigations, to simply get a seal of endorsement on them, that though there is a symbolic band on the eyes of Goddess of Justice, but judge sitting in the court is not blind. He will see the material placed on record with open eyes and judicial mind to reach to his own conclusions”.
“Though, this court is well within its powers even to take cognizance of the offences seem to have been committed by the accused and proceed against them, based on the instant closure report. However, on account of lack of some technical evidence on record, which the Investigating Officer has conveniently not collected, this court just defers the cognizance and directs the investigating agency to place the fresh evidence on record by virtue of further investigation”, the Special Judge said.
The court has directed the investigating agency to collect the specimen/admitted signatures of all the officers/officials of the JKPDD who have signed on the utility certificates and send it to FSL for the expert opinion and enlist all the concerned who have created and used these documents at all levels and got released the payments.
The Special Judge Anti-Corruption has further directed the investigating agency to collect the details of all the bills authenticated by the Rodic by attaching UCs for payments based on the bills and also get the details of the representatives of the Rodic who have signed such bills and the bills which were not certified by the PMA and the payment made.
The court has also sought to know the names of the people who were engaged by the Rodic in the field for monitoring the execution and their statements in context of working of PMA and the Executing Agency on the ground. Further, the investigating agency has been asked to record the statements of all the engineers who remained associated with the ACB and are signatory to the reports on record.
“Record the statements of the officials who were incharge of the stores where the excess material were found lying and also of those who were associated in the execution of the scheme on ground; deliver a questionnaire to the concerned authorities of the Administrative Department of JKPDD who were posted there at the relevant time to know from them as to why they failed to check the violations/misappropriation at the very first instance and allowed to sustain them which has severely affected the execution of scheme on the ground and caused loss to the public money”, the court further directed.
The court has further asked the investigating agency to ascertain why the Government did not take Departmental Action against the errant officers/officials of the JKPDD as recommended by the Investigating Officer of the case in the instant closure report
While directing further investigating through a SIT to be headed by an officer of an impeccable integrity and of the level of SSP, the Special Judge said, “the investigation should be completed within a period of two months and status reports of further investigation be filed before this court on fortnightly basis”.
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